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How to make the agnoli in brodo: Put the beef, parsley, celery and carrot in a
pot, cover with abundant cold water, add salt and leave to boil
until the meat is tender.
When cooking is complete, drain the meat and cut it into pieces.
Meanwhile, in a pan, melt the butter and add the finely chopped
onion which must be removed when it becomes golden. Add the pieces
of meat to the aromatized butter, then 1/2 a ladle of broth, and the
rosemary, nutmeg, spices, salt and pepper.
When the liquid has
evaporated, add the minced salami which has been fried lightly
beforehand. Pass through the sieve and work well until obtaining a
paste of medium consistency. Prepare the pasta in the usual way; cut
into squares, fill them with a small ball of forcemeat and close as
for an agnolo.
Recommended wine: Freisa or Lambrusco Mantovano
Recipe proposed by Nadia and Antonio Santini
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Taken from "Di terra e di acqua" ed. Franco Angeli.
Agnolini in
brodo
No occasion for celebration in Mantua is possible without this rich and
substantial dish ... For Mantua cuisine, the traditional mid-day meal, on
remote winter feast days, consisted of sliced salami with grilled polenta,
agnolini in brodo (broth), mixed boiled meats, and cake, probably the "sbrisolona"
(a crumbly almond shortcake).
... As for
every version of stuffed pasta, there is some controversy over its
cultural and territorial origins which have been lost over the ages, thus
determining an infinite variety of tastes and just as many definitions ...
so, although certain important elements such as the pasta and meat
stuffing are common to all, the specific recipe for this dish varies
practically from one family to another (and even more so from one region
to another), protecting the culinary rites, the history and the local
patrimony of knowledge.
... "Agnolini"
are probably of noble origin (young meat being a prerogative of the rich)
and in effect, they have preserved the solemn air conferred with the
dignity of being a princely dish on Mantuan tables at Christmastime and
Easter, to celebrate an important family event or to enrich a local feast.
... Each family has its own recipe for agnolini ... Even the restaurants
involved in our survey, situated as they are in different provincial
localities and therefore the custodians of different gastronomic cultures,
present small elements that diversify and precisely identify the stuffing
and type of pasta while remaining within the canons dictated by Mantuan
tradition.
At the Il
Pescatore restaurant, for example. they add fruit mustard and macaroons to
the mixed meat stuffing; at the Bersagliere, they add breadcrumbs, steeped
in the juices of the roast meats, to flavour the filling. Even the methods
used for cooking meat differ between the areas we explored: city tradition
wants meat braised for hours in red wine; at the Ambasciata, instead, they
use a pressure cooker to cook the meat thoroughly, similarly to Parma
districts (but then, we are close) where agnolini are filled only with the
very dense meat juices obtained after being cooked for days in a special
earthenware pot. Other times, restaurants adopt alternatives to make
preparation easier according to modern necessities: for example, the meat,
instead of being braised for hours, is only lightly roasted or boiled to
maintain its aroma and flavour and to make the dish "lighter". Again,
there are many versions of broth: particularly the Ambasciata uses capon
broth which has a creamier taste than that of hen. The preparation of the
broth for agnolini is very important: it must be tasty but light so that
it does not cover the flavour of the pasta.
The main variant to the recipe concerns the addition of Lambrusco wine to the
broth: this particular case is called bevrin vin. Sorbir
d'agnoli signifies a small cup of broth, enriched by five or six
agnolini. To drink the broth with the addition of wine is a country habit
that can be found in various regions of Italy: Piedmont, Lombardy, Friuli
and Veneto. Tradition has it that the farm workers upon their return from
the land would taste a basin of broth (boiling hot and with a generous
dash of red wine) while standing before the fireplace (as if to
distinguish it from the true and proper meal) and this habit, especially
in the version of sorbir d'agnoli, has remained the only original
"starter" in Mantuan cuisine. (Tessari, 1964:261).
Taken from "Di terra e di acqua" ed. Franco Angeli.
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